European Journal of Wood and Wood Products最新文献

Making furniture or furniture elements that account for the needs of children at various stages of development or with psychomotor dysfunctions is very difficult. From the point of view of exploitation and production technology, it is difficult to select a specific material and manufacturing technique. In this article, the results of using the APEKS method, which is a type of Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method, are presented to select the best solution for the production of children’s furniture elements with surface structures similar to those of natural materials. Wood bark was selected as a material that, due to the sensory tactile sensations of dysfunctional children, could contribute to therapy and education. Comparative analysis was performed on the basis of the subtractive and additive methods used for manufacturing furniture products. Precise multiaxis milling of ash wood and 3D printing with fused filament fabrication technology using wood PLA filaments were carried out. The method used to select the best option considered quantitative and qualitative criteria in the assessment. Various parameters characterizing the surfaces were analyzed, such as geometric dimensions, hill heights, valley depths, and 3D surface parameters. The quality and surface roughness (Sa, Sz, Ssk, Sku, Sp, and Sv) parameters obtained based on 3D microscope measurements were determined. A scale of 1 to 10 was used to assess qualitative factors (i.e., usability and aesthetics). Based on the critical values obtained from the coefficient K_cri = 79.36, it was assumed that multiaxis wood milling was the best method for producing furniture elements with the required surface characteristics for use as therapeutic and educational tools for children with dysfunctions. The applied method allowed an effective evaluation of the compared variants of the production of furniture elements for customized applications.

The increasing demand for wood with enhanced flame retardant characteristics in construction applications necessitates strategic interventions. This study explores the fire behaviour and chemical characterisation of Robinia pseudoacacia wood subjected to thermal modification and flame retardant treatments. Thermal modification was carried out at three different temperatures (160 °C, 180 °C and 240 °C). The fire properties of wood coated with Flame Gard (F), a commercial flame retardant, arabinogalactan (A), a natural flame retardant, melamine adhesive (MF) with ammonium polyphosphate (AP), nanosilica (NS), nanoclay (NC) (MF-AP-NS and MF-AP-NC) and arabinogalactan with AP, NS and NC (A-AP-NS and A-AP-NC), were assessed using cone calorimetry in terms of the weight loss rate, ignition time and heat release rate. The commercial flame retardant Flame Gard outperformed the natural and fortified flame retardants in terms of the weight loss rate, heat release rate (HRR) and ignition time (t_ig). Unmodified samples exhibited superior fire properties in terms of t_ig and HRR compared to thermally modified samples. The peak heat release rate (kW.m^− 2) and time to peak heat release rate (s) showed a moderate degree of dependency on the chemical constituents of the wood.

Location determines not only the climatic condition but also the structural loads that the structure must withstand. Given the broad variety of climatic and seismic requirements of Chile, the design of lightweight timber buildings considering both energy and seismic design parameters and boundary conditions becomes a difficult task. The main objective of this research is to analyze and quantify the effect of climates, seismic loads, lateral anchorage, and story number on the optimal energy design solutions, including the seismic behavior in a light-frame timber building. Furthermore, the optimal design was parametrically analyzed considering five Chilean cities that consider different climates, seismic zone, number of stories, and lateral anchorage systems to prevent rocking (overturning) due to lateral seismic forces. The optimal wall insulation thickness, stud spacing, and thermal mass exhibited significant variations depending on the buildings' number of stories, lateral anchorage system, climate, and seismic zone. Therefore, the results of this investigation reinforce the necessity of integrating energy and seismic designs for light-frame timber buildings. The optimal designs obtained in this investigation showed considerable variations depending on the combination of climatic and seismic loads as well as the number of stories and anchoring systems. The article's main contributions are the evidence of the structural and energy design interconnection of light-frame timber buildings and how design variables, such as stud spacing, floor concrete thickness layer, and wall insulation thickness, are related and change according to the different climates, seismic loads, lateral anchorage, and story number.

A major function of resin in trees is to provide defense against external attacks by releasing the resin flow in the attacked or damaged area. Nonetheless, leakage of resin on the surface can have negative aesthetic and economic impacts on wood materials. The aim of this study was to investigate how heat treatment affects the physico-chemical properties of the resin of Pinus sylvestris L. to hinder exudation on wood surfaces during service. To reduce the fluidity of the resin, it is necessary to remove the volatile fraction of resin, and several studies have been carried out in this direction, providing useful information about this process. The results from thermal analyses (DSC, TGA) confirmed that heat treatment at mild temperatures, 80 °C, 90 °C and 100 °C had a positive effect on increasing the glass transition temperature T_g and that the T_g and the residual volatile content were strongly correlated. FTIR spectroscopy, before and after heat treatment, did not reveal major changes in chemical structure, while UHPLC-DAD-MS analysis revealed significant differences in the ratios of compounds, which are the result of possible chemical reactions, such as dehydrogenation, oxidation and isomerization.

Laminated bamboo columns with box sections are favored by designers because they overcome the disadvantage of small elastic modulus, but local buckling behavior caused by an excessive width-to-thickness ratio will lead to a non-uniform distribution of stress. The discontinuous cracks at the glued joints and waveform deformation indicate that the local buckling has a significant effect on the bearing capacity of columns with box sections. However, few studies have been reported on the evaluation of bearing capacity considering local stability due to non-uniformity and discontinuity. The experiments on 5 glued laminated bamboo columns with box sections (GLBCs) with different length-to-width ratios under axial compression were carried out. The test results showed that the waveform bulging failure occurred on the surface of GLBCs before the overall buckling, and an obvious debonding failure occurred between the bamboo plates. These failures aggravated the local buckling failure. As the length-to-width ratio increased, the number of waveforms buckling increased, the lower the bearing capacity. To evaluate the local stability of GLBCs accurately, a new anisotropic plate model considering the width correction coefficient and material anisotropy for the critical buckling load of GLBC was proposed. Furthermore, it can be found that an appropriate width-to-thickness ratio can effectively avoid local buckling failure. A formula for the critical width-to-thickness ratio of GLBCs under different slenderness ratios was proposed. In this paper, the anisotropic plate model proposed can accurately evaluate the bearing capacity considering the local stability of GLBCs under axial compression.

The study addresses concerns associated with formaldehyde-based adhesives in wood panel board production by proposing geopolymer-based wood binders as promising, formaldehyde-free alternatives. Using bentonite, the research delves into the development and performance properties of this geopolymer wood binder. The BET method was employed for the surface characterization of precursor raw materials for binder preparation. Si and Al elements identified through XRF analysis were correlated with characteristic bands in the FTIR spectrum. Alkaline activation solutions, employing sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide with a molar ratio range of 0.5 to 2.5 (SiO₂:Na₂O), revealed that binders with a molar ratio of 2.5 exhibited lower pH and higher adhesion strength. Different geopolymer formulations at solution to powder ratios (s/p) of 1.33, 3, and 3.5 determined s/p 3.5 as optimal for bentonite-based organo-geopolymer binders. Viscosity, gel time, pH, and solids content were examined, showing the effectiveness of substituting 10% silica fume to enhance the geopolymerization process and improve adhesion. Modifications using citric acid, sucrose, paraffin, pMDI, triacetin, and resorcinol demonstrated wet bonding strength comparable to urea formaldehyde adhesive. Analytical techniques, including FTIR spectroscopy, XRD analysis, and SEM EDX analysis, provided insights into functional groups, crystallographic properties, and microstructural characteristics. The concentration of Si and Al compounds on the bonding line, coupled with Na element diffusion, was observed through these analyses. Light microscopy of lap shear samples revealed a thinner bonding line, affirming effective binder penetration into wood cell lumens in bentonite-based organo-geopolymer binder formulations.

Elastic fasteners have been widely adopted in timber sleeper tracks in certain high-demand areas across North American freight network due to their excellent potential to mitigate rail-rollover derailments by resisting steering moment and rotation of rail from the vertical axis through intense elastic force to securely hold-down the rail to the sleeper baseplate. However, these systems have led to at least 13 derailments reported since 2000 because of sleeper baseplate spike fatigue failures. Previous spike-failure investigations established that the loss of friction at the baseplate-sleeper interface caused by the wave-action of rail was the major mechanism that transfers additional loads to the spikes, and results in spike stresses exceeding the endurance limits. Previous studies also demonstrated the positives of plate hold-down load on controlling spike stress levels; with this load being historically applied via spring washers. Although the static performance of such hold-down systems has been evaluated in the literature, the long-term, time dependent behavior has not been quantified previously. This paper quantifies the effects of timber sleeper species, spring washer resiliency, and installation load on stress relaxation of these systems over 1,000 h in the laboratory under constant climate conditions. Experimental data demonstrate the significant impact of installation load magnitude on relaxation performance – load retention of 96% and 67% observed under 11.1 kN (2,500 lbs.) and 66.7 kN (15,000 lbs.) installation load, respectively. However, the insignificant effect of spring resiliency on the relaxation behavior was reflected through a 2% only change in load retention over a four-fold change in resiliency. A 15% increase in load retention was achieved by using Red Oak in place of Mixed Hardwood which established sleeper species as a critical parameter in such applications. An assessment of an extended experimentation period (i.e., 2,450 h) was carried out to better estimate the end point of relaxation. The experiments were conducted in an environmental chamber that does not represent the harsh conditions (i.e., loads, vibrations, temperature, humidity, or moisture) of the revenue-service tracks. However, results from this work can reasonably be useful to guide the selection of appropriate components along with recommended installation loads for hold-down applications to improve the overall safety of timber sleeper tracks that leverage elastic fasteners.